I’m about an inch away from starting the toe decreases on my first Broadripple sock. Despite knitting them almost entirely on two circulars, I waited until well after the gusset decreases were finished to try them on.

This is not like me. Usually, I’m a firm believer that every now and then you have to put the sock on your foot and smile and wave it around a little. These socks were meant for my mother and not me, and her feet are larger than mine (as if nearly every other foot in the world), so probably that’s why I didn’t bother.

It was a bad move, and now my socks are walking on pretty thin ice. I threatened to ground them, but the fact is that the only other project I have on the needles is a baby sweater and I’ve forgotten where I am in the sleeve decreases and haven’t been able to psych myself up to tear out the sleeve and start over.

There’s nothing wrong with the socks, per se. But it turns out that cotton? Not so much with the stretch. Despite having knit at the same gauge as usual, with the same heel flap as usual, these socks barely fit over my ankle. You know those jeans in the back of your closet that you can wear, but only if you lay down on your back on the bed to zip them? Putting on these socks is sort of like that. Its a process. You have to really want the socks.

I would rip them out, but hello! they met Darth Maul, and therefore they must stay in one piece. And so I’m pressing on…and evidently making the socks for myself.